Send for the NEW Edelstaal BOOKLET NO. 8-100 4") handbook . exclusively devoted ii ee River Queen to miniature ees Open machining J Bevocd or tinn ema ea Launch Engine Kit Plans accurately. With over 200,000 books already in use, this is @ brand new edition, written by John Surroughs, famous machine tool and workshop author. Written in easy-to-read, simple how-to" language, the fandbook’ describes every type of meial machining operation in minute detail. with more complex set-u or procedures clearly illustrated thru 192 photographs and drawings. “A complete text that will enable beginner to master the art of precision machine work and model making.” TURNING WORK BETWEEN CENTERS & SPECIAL LATHE OPERATIONS! VERTICAL SPINDLE MACHINING & USING UNIMAT ACCESSORIES! intaTuRE WooD-WoRKING ‘ON UNIMAT! engineers electronic inetrument ‘osigners Rap technicians Machining Techniques today — a fort class postage. $e.00 AMERICAN EDELSTAAL INC. Tenatly, Now Jersey 07870 Usa ENGINEERING MODEL SERIES prosihéd ny ne EDELSTAAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTEBUILDING A WORKING-MODEL OPEN COLUMN LAUNCH ENGINE INTRODUCTION Working models of old-time steam engines have enduring fascination for anyone interested in mechanics. Bulld- 19 2 miniature version of @ chugging prime mover of years past is a very satistying project, and it's a job that feven beginning modelmakers can eas- ily accomplish successfully if they work with reasonable care. ‘Of the many types of engine that utilized steam (beam, oscillating cylin- der, slide valve mill engine, etc), the Tight open column marine engines wide- ly used in the late 1800s to power small steam launches are perhaps sim- plest to model. The 1/2’-bore single- acting engine shown on these pages is an engine of this type. Launch steam engines ordinarily were built with single vertical cylin ders supported on four upright col umns, of pillars, with the connecting od Grank-driving a short main shaft fitted with a heavy small-diameter fly- wheel. This arrangement permitted mounting the engine low in the hull of the launch with the engine shaft * Copyriaht 1972, EDELSTAAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE the kit, A machined copper or brass elbow filling can be used to make the bend in the steam line If you want to mount your engine for display, cut a 3/4”-thick walnut block with 10 degree edge-bevels for a sub- Jase, Routing recesses in this block for the nuts and serew-heads on the bottom of the engine's baseplate will permit ‘mounting the model tat on the block. After sanding the wood smooth, give the sub-base two coats of flat varnish or flat black paint and secure the engine fon its base with small dabs of epo» Edelstaal material kits for more ad- vansed model steam engines machined from eastings are available, and the line also includes «model cannon kits and ‘other interesting projects that can. be machined on your Unimat. See these new kits at your Edelstaal dealer, or ‘write to American Edelstaal, Ine. 1 At wood Avenue, Tenatly, New Jersey 07870, tor iterature Here's the finished engine "ends af the soft coppertube steam line supplied with the kit Bend the tube fo a neat curve with your fingars, taking care not to collapse it. and screw the top end inte the cylinder, using pipe: Joint compound on the threads. To screw the bottom end into the valve housing, disassemble the engine. screw the valve housing on the end of the tube, and reassemble. Cutting and threading short copper-tube ninpies and serewing them into the valve biock's inlet and exhaust ports will simplify connecting steam or air lines to the engine. Make sure that the ends of the copper tubes do not bind the valve. ‘You can run your engine either with steam trom a small boiler or with com: pressed air from a paint-spraying com: pressor. A well-built engine at first runs stiffly, but its bearing surfaces will soon wear in. Keep the front bearing oiled. oll the valve through its exhaust port and ool the cylinder bore fom the bol- 40 Bend the rod ta clear the crank dise ‘om. The engine's direction of rotation can be reversed by interchanging inlet and exhaust lines you want to paint your engine, paint the baseplate, valve housing and front bearing biock with a spray can leaving all other parts. brightinished The color taditionally used on steam engines was flat medium-olive-drab green ‘Small steam engines have surprising power for their size, and a 1/2"-bore engine will drive a mode boat up to two feet long. To mount the engine on stringers in the hull of 2 model launch, bolt two lengitis of angle stock to the bottom of ine basepiste and bolt these mounting fitings through the stringers. Don't hesitate 1a modify the design of this engine to suit yourself. If you prefer a more closely-coupled engine ‘simply shorien the baseplate and shalt. IW you preter brass bearing blocks, sub- stitute brass for the steel supplied in EQUIPMENT NEEDED: Basic Unimat 3-jaw or 4-jaw spindle chuck Machine vise Drills, ps and dies Hand tools Drill chuck \ The materials kit includes cut metal for all parts, serews and drawings aligned with the craft's propelier shat The low-speed engine then could drive the propeller directly though a flexible coupling. A cosl-, cordwood- or olltired boiler (burning the fuel most readily available locally) mounted amidships supplied steam to the en gine al around 150 Ibs. working pres- sure, with a valve in the steam line serving 5 a throttle. Probably the most familiar example of a steam launch of this kind is the River Queen These launch engines were not par- ticularly efficient — their boilers. con- sumed about 1¥%2 Ibs. of coal per horsepower per hour — but they were robust and reliable. Engines of this type remained in use until early in this cen: tury, when the intemal combustion en- gine made the picturesque steam launch obsolete, The simplified model launch engine this booklet describes was designed especially for novice machinists to ma- chine on the Edelstaal Unimat. All parts can be readily machined from metal in stock shapes, and the easy-to-fit rotary valve on the engine's shaft makes the many small parts other types of valve require unnecessary. The mater- Tals kit for the engine. which includes rough-cut metal for ail parts together with all fastenings, is lower in price than engine kits with ready-machined components. ‘Although the parts drawings give ex- act dimensions, it Isn't necessary to machine this engine's parts to close dimensianal tolerance, Instead, parts can simply be machined to ft. For example, the cylinder bore needn't measure exactly 1/2" in diameter: it can be slightly larger or smaller than nominal size provided the piston tits the bore. Similarly, the exact size of the valve housing’s bore isn't important provided the valve is turned ta closely fit the housing.Polishing the engine's shaft CONSTRUCTION Bogin with the engine's shall, The stock supplied is proper diameter and ready for polishing. With the Unimat set up as a lathe, chuck the shaft and centerdrill one end, Then, gripping one tend of the stock in the drill chuck and supporting the centerdriled end with the lallstock center, polish the shaft smooth with very fine 600-grit silicon carbide paper, removing no mare metal than necessary. Next turn the flywheel, which is machined from 1¥2"-diam. steel, Grip the stock securely in the Unimat’s S- Jaw chuck, tapping it as you tighten the chuck’s jaws until the outer end uns true, and face the wheel's side, Since steel is a hard-to-cut material sharpen the lathe's tool bit needie- sharp. Set the tool at a right angie to the work and feed the facing cuts trom the center out, using the Unimat's slowest spindle speed and taking very Tight cuts (about 002" deep, or one mark on the feed handwhee!'s hub) to avoid chatter. If you have a slow-speed altachment for your Unimat, you can Use still slower spindle speed and take deeper cuts. Turning shallow recesses 4 Drilling the flywheel in the sides of the whee! as shown in the photos improves its appearance, ‘After finish-turning the wheel's diam- eter for half its width, reverse the work in the chuck and face the opposite side similarly. Then centerdril and drill a pilot hole through the wheel with an 1/8” twist drill held in the eill chuck mounted on the Unimat’s tailstock, drill Ing at slowest spindle speed. Withdraw the drill frequentiy as the hole deepens to clear chips from the flutes and flood the hole with light machine oil, Then enlarge the 1/8” pilot hole with a 3/16 drill, using a new drill to avoid driling the hole oversize. To drill the hole tor the fiywheel’s setscrew, set the Unimat up as a drill press and grip the wheel In the machine vise, With the flywheel fixed on the end of the shaft with its selscrew, chuck the shalt in the lathe and true the flywheels diamoter with a very light finishing cut ‘Then polish the wheel with fine abrasive cloth, Next thread the opposite end of the shaft with @ 10-32 die for the screwed- fon crank disc. (If you lack the 10-32 lap and dle, tum the shaft end to a shouldered tenon that can be inserted Seribing centerlines jor valve urooves the centerline for each groove through the top port. Hold the scriber against the cylinder side of the port to scribe the inlet groove's centerline and against the flywheel side of the port to scribe the exhaust groove's centerline. Each groove runs hall-way around the valve. Establish beginning and ending points for each groove as shown in the valve operation diagram. The steam inlet groove provides a steam passage that Connects the side inlet port with the top cylinder port during the first haif of each rovolution of the valve. The steam exhaust groove provides a steam pas- sage that connects the top cylinder port with the side exhaust port during the second half of each revolution of the valve. I you have an indexing and dividing head for your Unimat, you can mill these two grooves with nice precision using a 1/16"-diam. miniature end mil, Lacking the indexing head, you can cut the grooves satisfactorily by hand using 2 hacksaw blade and knife-edged file The two grooves should have square father than V-shaped cross-section. Avoid marring the working surface of the valve as you cut them, Measuring length for connecting rod FINAL ASSEMBLY Now begin final fitting, Screw the valve assembly and front bearing to the baseplate, Then screw the four hexa- gonal suporting columns into the bot- fom of the cylinder and lower the cylin- der assembly over the crank disc, This done. measure the proper length for the connecting rod, which should be cut to fit, With the piston just clearing the cylinder head and the crank disc's pin at lop center, measure the distance be- tween the piston’s wrist pin and the crank pin, center to center, Drill 1/8” holes spaced this distance apart In the 1/16"-thick stock supplied for the con- necting rod and then grind or file the od 10 the protile shown, Bending the rod to 2 slight offsot allows it to clear the crank dise, Shorten the crank pin with a file just enough to clear the columns. Timing the engine is simply a matter ff holding the piston at top dead cen: ter and rotating the valve on the en- gine’s shaft until the leading end of the valve's steam-inlet groove can be seen through the top cylinder port. Lock the valve in this position with its setscrew. Finally, cut to length and thread theblocks will be at identical height, Use slowest spindle speed when drilling the blocks, first drilling small pilot Roles and then enlarging the pilot holes with progressively larger drills. The bearing block has 2 3/16" hole. The hole in the valve housing is 5/16" in diameter and ‘must have @ smooth finish. Drill this larger hole slightly undersiza and then ream i, using either a chucking ream- er or @ 8/16" end mill run al the Uni mat’s slowest spindle speed. Squirt on Cutting oi! liberally when drilling oF reaming steel When the blocks are bored, set up the Unimat as 2 dril press and drill the tree steam ports in the valve housing block. Locate the top port, which sup plies steam to the cylinder, on the block's centerline, The centers of the ‘wo side ports, inlet and exhaust, aro ‘offset 1/16" from the block's centerline. The inlet port is offset 1/16" towards the cylinder end of the engine, and the exhaust port is offset 1/18" towards the flywheel end. Atter tapping these three ports 6-32, carefully scrape away burs left inside the valve housing’s bore. Then turn the valve to an accurate Sawing the piston's slot sliding fit in the valve housing. Finish the working surface of the valve care- fully, taking very light cuts with a sharp lathe bit and reducing diameter very gradually until the valve turns freely in the housing but has no play. For sati factory seal the valve must fit the hous ing’s bore precisaly, (If you should cut the valve too small, try again with a now piece of steel.) When the valve fits, face the end and shoulder and dr the 3/16" center hole before removing the part from the chuck, Then reverse the valve and face the oposite end. With the valve drilled and tapped for its 4-40 setscrew, slide the valve hous- ing, valve and front bearing block on the engine shaft and clamp the assem. bly temporarily In place on the base- plate, making sure that the shaft aligns with the plato's centerline. Then mack locations for mounting screw holes on the wo blocks through the holes in the baseplate. Drill and tap the holes in the blocks 4-40. Always use cutting il when tapping steal Next screw the vale assembly on the plate and mark the valve's two steam passage grooves. rotating the valve in its housing and lightly scribing Reaming hole in the valve housing through the hole in the crank dise and riveted over) “Turn the hubbed crank disc from the piece of mild stect supplied and drill and tap its center hole 10-32. To drill the olfset hole for the crankpin, set Up tho Unimat as drill press and grip the disc in the machine vise by its hub, Tap the pin hole 6-32. Then screw the crank disc firmly on the shaft, stake the threads (or smear them with filled epoxy cement) to prevent unscrewing, ‘and with the shaft chucked in the drill chuck on the lathe spindle, true the disc with very light finishing cuts and polish it with fine abrasive cloth. Then thread the end of the crank pin and screw it into the disc, staking the pin's threads similarly. Leaving the pin ovar- length will permit trimming it to exact length when the engine is assembled. 's important to make sure before machining the engine's cylinder that the Unimat’s headstock Is precisely aligned with the bed, since it would be impossible to fit the piston satisfactorily in a tapered cylinder bore. Also before turning the cylinder, chuck the length of 1/2"-diam. steel included in the kit (both piston and valve are cut from Polishing the crank dise ; this stack) in the Unimat’s 3-jaw chuck face one end, and taka a very light truing cut on the stock's diameter the length of the piston, removing no more metal than necessary. Smooth off burrs and polish the tured surface with fine abrasive cloth. This stock now can be Used as a plug gauge for boring the cylinder, after which the piston will be slotted and cut off The cylinder is tuned from free-ma- chining aluminum. First turning a short 3/4"-diam. tenon that can be gripped in the 3-jaw chuck on one end of the aluminum slug and centerdriling the ‘opposite end for the lathe’s dead cen- ter will simplity turing the cylinder's outer diameter and central recess, ‘After turning, bore the cylinder with- ‘out removing it from the chuck. Drill through the wark lengthwise with a 3/16” drill, using slowest spindle ‘speed and withdrawing the drill fre- ‘quently to clear chips, Then enlarge the hole using successively larger drills to about 3/8” in diameter. Finally, fin- ish-bore the hole accurately to size — Until the piston fits with close sliding fit — with a boring tool. (If you lack a boring tool for your Unimat. you can Turning piston Jor use as plug gauge 5Drilling the engine's aluminum cylinder Boring the cylinder to accept piston grind one from a blank tool bit or longth broken from an old round or triangular file.) As the bore nears finish size, sot the Unimat’s carriage movements up snugly and feed the final cuts slowly and continuously to machine the cylin der wall to a perlectiy smooth finish. Work patiently, taking extremely light final cuts to fit the pison as carofully as you can, for the piston has no rings and must fit the bore closely. When the cylinder is bored, turn off the chuck- ing tenon. ‘Next complete the piston, slotting it and cross-drilling for the wrist pin. You can saw the slot for the connecting rod using a slitting saw blade mounted ‘on the Unimat’s saw arbor, or you can do the jab satisfactorily by hand with a fine-toothed hacksaw blade. ‘That done, turn the aluminum cylin- der head, which has a locating boss that should closely fit the cylinder bore. Having finish-turned the head, lay out centers for six screw holes, spacing them equally on a 3/4”-diam, circle with dividers and centerpunching light- ly. Convert the Unimat to a drill press and grip the head by its boss in the machine vise to drill these six 7/64” holes. Then uso the drilled head as a template to locate matching No. 43 holes in the top of the cylinder. Drill the holes in the cylinder as deep as possible without breaking through the fend shoulder and tap them 4-40, start jing the threads with @ taper tap and finishing them with a bottoming tap. (Lacking a bottoming tap, you can sim- ply grind off some of the tapered end of the taper tap.) Next make the engine’s steel base: plate. The edges and rough-cut ends of the plate can be nicely finish-ground with a cup wheel on the Unimat's grind Ing arbor, or you ean square them with a file, To smooth up the top and bot tom faces, rub the plate on medium. grit abrasive cloth placed on a flat sur- face. Then lay out and centerpunch the plate’s. eight screw holes, measuring carefully and using a small square to scribe accurate centerlines. To drill the holes, set up the Unimat as a drill press and grip the plate in the machine vise with is top face flush with the vise jaws. Drill the holes at the Unimat’s slowest spindle speed. Having drilled the plato, use it as a template to mark locations of the four tapped holes in the bottom of the cylit der for the four supporting columns. Drill these holes with a No. 36 dri taking care not to drill through the cylinder’s end shoulder, and tap the holes 6-32. Use a bottoming tap or ground-off taper tap to throad these holes full-depth. The four hexagonal steel columns supporting the engine's cylinder have lumed-down ends threaded to shoul- ders. Threading the column's ends will be quite easy it you have a thread: chasing atachment for your Unimat. Lacking the thread-chasing attachment, you can thread the ends satisfactorily with 4 6-32 die if you reverse the die aftor the threads are well started 10 ‘cut them close 1o the shoulder. (It you have difficulty threading the columns, simply turn them off square, drill and tap the ends, and comont in studs cut from 6-32 screws with filled epoxy ce- ment.) Having threaded the top ends, measure and mark the length of the columns from the top shoulder and tun and thread the bottom ends. The four columns must be exactly equal in length, shoulder to shoulder, to support the cylinder squarely, ‘You can finish-machine the engine's front bearing and valve housing biocks by gripping the rough stock in the lathe's 4-jaw chuck and facing each side, or you can surface-grind the blocks with a cup grinding wheel. The easiest way to bore the holes through the two blocks is to set up the Unimat ‘88 a horizontal boring mill, mounting a drill in the drill chuck on the lathe spindle and clamping each block in tum squarely on the carriage with a stud clamp. This will insure that the centerlines of the holes in the two Drilling the baseplate's screw holes 7For Unimat owners. kits you can buil With alittle low (And a little lathe These unique and beautiful kits were designed by the _ skilled hobbyi same people who make the Unimat precision lathe, and every one is a masterpiece of design and engi- Every kit contains pre-cut, ready-to-machine metals, neering. For the beginning Unimat user, these kits instruction booklet and easy-to-follow drawings. For are an ideal way to become familiar with the Unimat, the amateur or the pro,there’s a kit to match your its accessories and machining techniques. For the skills , they offer a rewarding challenge. K-100 River Queen Launch Engine K-200 Steam-powered pickup truck This is the perfect kit for the fledgling machinist. It's Steam-powered pick-up truck actually operates, is only simple, easy to make, yet gives 2 real working model of 4%" long, comes complete with engine, boiler and gear the kind of engine used to power small steam launches inthe drive. late 1800's. We. 18 02, Kit includes a model pickup truck, rough-cut bronze and stain. Jess steel for all parts and fastenings, plus complete plan drawings and step-by-step instruction book to construct the model. Not for Beginners. Wt. 28 02,OPEN COLUMN LAUNCH STEAM ENGINE ALL DRAWINGS ACTUAL SIZE vy \\ ' — 21/2" _ 4 ve h yk I WNT a WY fy | 3/16" Rol} 5/16" ca pa 4A SHAFT DRILL No. 36 57am BRD TAPS FLYWHEEL THREAD BOTH ENDS 6-92 a + 9, 1st V t 3/3" mes ‘WRIST PIN 30+ PISTON 1/2" eto y x 5/16" I 1 alle OIL HOLE 8" f= 116" sLoT \ Groove A | GROOVE B 3/32" aig te 3/32" /16" e a = E] ase bp J3y8" Qo 3vr6rt ET ET tape FRONT BEARING ROTARY VALVE ty ee ue" i t a J £ »4 aon WM aul 4 «dh apt} —— i = 5716" EACH VALVE HOUSING 9/16" oy fF 1/8" ~ SIX 7/64” HOLES ON3/8” RADIUS FOR 4-40 SCREWS Ly an et fi 4 aoe o J J} | Al loo J me CYLINDER AND HEAD 17/32" ui 19" 2) g r= 5, BASEPLATEFRONT BEARING ‘SECTIONS THROUGH VALVE VALVE HOUSING AT ‘GROOVE B and PORT B fy vave Srennd 7 TO ADMIT STEAM ~~ Focvnoen co x ROTARY VALVE SECTIONS THROUGH|VALVE ‘AND VALVE HOUSING AT GROOVE A AND POR’ A aldo | oe Or POSITION J EXHAUST VALVE JUST CLOSED — NO STEAM FLOW POSITION K >} euinaie one rosin eR, wea apart =2Q) PERT ae JUST CLOSED — we ‘AND CRANK DISC SHOWING ‘JUST OPENING NO STEAM FLOW RELATIVE POSITION M NO STEAM IN ALL_VIEWS FROM CYLINDER END OF EN- GINE LOOKING TOWARDS FLYWHEEL. DiA- GRAMS SHOW CLOCKWISE ROTATION WITH STEAM INLET AT LEFT AND EXHAUST AT POSITIONS OF PISTON AND VALVE ea Si POSITION M EXHAUST FLOW RIGHT. VALVE HOUSING'S TOP PORT IS CONNECTED TO. THE CYLINDER BY THE ‘STEAM LINE, THE VALVE IS FIXED ON THE SHAFT AND ROTATES AS THE ENGINE RUNS. VALVE OPERATION VALVE HOUSING po Torr M4 iI tae BASEPLATE “5/16 CONNECTING ROD STEAM LINE | sccron_ | oo i °Q 2| o ° ASSEMBLY